Disclaimer

Thunderbirds and all the characters etc. belong to Gerry Anderson and Working Title films, I'm just borrowing them.

Accidents

Chapter 8 – The family left behind

"Hi dad. How's the hangover?" Virgil asked playfully, trying not to laugh at the look on Jeff's face.

"If I was feeling any better you probably would get a smack for that." Jeff said groggily, sitting down on the sofa.

"Come on dad. I know this time has got to be hard for you, for all of us, but John wouldn't want us to just sit around moping." A smile came to Virgil's face, "Besides, you haven't smacked any of us in years."

"I haven't got this drunk in years either Virgil, so you better be careful." Virgil would have replied, but was stopped by Gordon from the doorway

"Tin Tin and I are going down on the monorail to see how the repairs are coming along. Want to come with us?" Gordon asked

"We'll be right there Gordon" Jeff said quickly "Go and see if Scott wants to come too."

"I already did. He wasn't in his room."

"Well, if he wants to, I'm sure he'll find us. Let's go."

"Well Alan, how's it going?" Virgil asked as soon as they could see Alan, half-hidden inside Thunderbird 3's engines. When he pulled himself out, they could see that he had already been working for some time. He was filthy.

"It's going to be tight. Hopefully, we should have it all completed by the time the new parts arrive. After that, it shouldn't be long at all."

"Any news about those parts? When should they be here?" Jeff almost demanded.

"Brains has been at them to hurry it up, but we can't tell them who we are, so it's still another 4 days."

"Want any help down there? Sitting around doing nothing just makes me feel worse." Gordon asked, climbing down the ladder before Alan had answered him

"All right, but you might get rather dirty. Just look at me"

"Who cares, at least gives me another excuse to jump in the pool later." Alan laughed.

"Fine. Grab the toolbox and climb in."

"Where the heck has he got to? Haven't seen him all morning" Virgil muttered, before turning on the comlink in his watch. "Alan, have you seen Scott today?"

"Ouch! Bad timing Virgil. And no, I haven't seen him." Alan snapped, then turned off the comlink.

"Helpful. I'll go back to his room, see if he left any clue as to where he was going" Virgil walked back into the house towards the bedrooms

"This bed hasn't even been slept in. Where was he all last night?!" Virgil exclaimed "I know I heard him come in after we helped dad, I heard the door close and…hang on, Scott's door is squeaky, but last night it wasn't. He must have gone into a different room!"

Virgil quickly went out into the hallway again and tried to figure out where Scott must have gone. As he looked towards the other brothers' rooms, an idea came to him. Right, Scott's room is at the end of the hall, and our rooms go down the hall in age order. I know that the door closing came from the right of my room, so Scott must have gone in… Virgil found himself standing outside the door to John's room.

"Flip, I wish he hadn't…dad's gonna go nuts when he finds out." Virgil slowly opened the door and walked in

"Scott, what are you doing in here?" Virgil demanded in a voice that sounded a lot like Jeff. Scott looked up blearily. He was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the side of the desk. There was an empty bottle lying on the desk behind him.

"Hi Virg…" Scott said groggily

"You've been drinking too! I don't believe this. I'm gonna go get dad."

"No! Virgil, I can explain…" Scott stammered, struggling to stand up. "Don't get dad."

"Oh, don't worry Scott. He's already going to be mad enough when he finds out where I found you." Virgil had walked almost to the door before a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Virgil…sit down. I'll tell you what…happened" Scott said around hiccups. By this point Scott had managed to pull Virgil partway back into the room.

"No, let go of my arm and I'll get dad. You can tell him about it…"

"NO!" Scott shouted angrily. He pulled Virgil back hard, which caused Scott to stumble and fall back onto the bed and Virgil to hit his head against the bedpost. Virgil slid to the floor, unconscious.

"Virgil, can you hear me? Oh god, I'm sorry. I'll go get help." Scott stuttered quickly, and ran out of the door.

"Virgil? Can you hear me Virgil?"

I know that voice. But where from? Where am I? What is going on?

"Mr Tracy, I think he's coming round." Virgil opened his eyes slightly.

Ahhh. It's so bright. Where am I? What happened? I was in John's room with Scott. Scott!

"Hello son, it's good to see you awake." Jeff said once he saw that Virgil was back with them properly.

"How long was I…?" Virgil started, as Tin Tin handed Jeff a glass of water to give him.

"Nearly 16 hours. You got me rather worried at one point, but we're pretty sure you escaped with only a concussion." Tin Tin replied

"16 hours? I… Where's Scott?"

"He's fine. He wanted to be here, but finally decided that he needed some sleep too."

"I keep thinking that I'm dreaming and that soon I'll wake up and everything will be fine, that John will be here too." Virgil muttered sleepily, not noticing the effect the words had on Jeff.

"Don't we all son." Jeff whispered as Virgil fell asleep again

"Oh damn, what a headache. Maybe going to sleep wasn't such a good idea after all" John murmured as he slowly sat up on the bed "I'm never going to get any repairs done like this."

Before John managed to get up entirely, an alarm went off from the other side of the station. He quickly grabbed the crutch with his right hand.

"God, what now?!"

"Hi Scott, come in." Virgil said, looking up from his magazine. Tin Tin and Jeff had said that he could leave the medical bay, as long as he took it easy for a while.

"Are you sure? If you want to be alone…" Scott said quickly

"No! Come in. Where have you been all day anyway? I wanted to talk to you about…" Virgil started, but Scott interrupted

"That's what I came for. I wanted to…to apologise about last night." Scott slowly walked into the room and sat down on the bed, careful not to look at Virgil even though they were right next to each other.

"You don't need to, it's…"

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to knock you out like that. I was drunk. I wasn't exactly thinking straight."

"Thanks Scott, but you didn't need to say it. I already knew by the way you've been avoiding me." Virgil looked at Scott as he looked up and clapped him on the shoulder "This time is going to be hard enough on this family. We have to stick together to get through it."

"You're right. Let's go find the others." Scott said, standing up.

"I can probably guess where they'll be."

"Yeah, me too. Gordon will be in the pool and Alan will be in the Thunderbird 3 hanger." Scott continued

"Where else?" Virgil exclaimed "I know it's silly, but I'm not sure if I want to go up there now even once Thunderbird 3 is fixed. I don't want to find him like that." Scott could tell why Virgil was thinking that

"Hey, Virgil, I know how you feel. None of us want him to be dead. But we need to rebuild Thunderbird 5 no matter how we feel. International Rescue has to stay operational."

"Yes, it's what John would want. And I have had an idea that I'd like to suggest to dad." Virgil added. Scott looked at him. "I'll tell you on the way."

"Then start telling."

"From the look of this place, I think I should start on the circuits for receiving transmissions, as that won't take me as long, then move on to the transmitters themselves." John stated. But if I receive an emergency call I'm gonna feel terrible that I can't tell anyone.

Three hours later

"Nearly finished, just a few more wires…there" John said as he put down his screwdriver. "Computer, activate radio receiver circuits."

A few seconds later there was a cackle of static and the radio came to life, almost deafening in the comparative silence of the station. It was a huge jumble of words and languages until the computers sorted through them and filtered it out. The station fell almost silent once more.

"Yep, I've fixed it."

It actually took Scott and Virgil longer than they thought it would to find everybody, as Jeff had apparently gone for a hike around the island to clear his thoughts. Eventually, everybody was in the lounge.

"All right you two, what's this about?" Jeff asked

"Don't look at me, this was Virgil's idea." Scott said. Everybody looked at Virgil.

"Um, I was thinking that…so that the world would know what really happened…um…" Virgil paused, not knowing how to say it. Scott helped him out

"The idea was that some of us could read out an obituary to John on one of the news channels." Scott said blankly "I would be willing to do it, I think it's a brilliant way to remember him."

"Are you serious?!"

"Right, now that that's done, what now. Everything is just a mess and I doubt I've even got enough spare parts to fix it all" John looked around him quietly, trying to figure out where to start. "I know, I'll try to patch up a link down to base first, and then, hopefully, Brains will be able to help me to get some of the other systems working."

TBC…

A/N - Sorry if I confused you, but as I was writing this I found that the title 'Ashes to Ashes' would fit chapter 9 better than this one, so I changed it. But this chapter still includes some unhappy Tracys!